The promise of my Father.... that is, the Holy Ghost, whom Christ had promised that his Father and he would send, John 14. 26, and 17. 7.

24:50. And he led them out as far as Bethania: and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

24:51. And it came to pass, whilst he blessed them, he departed from them and was carried up to heaven.

24:52. And they adoring went back into Jerusalem with great joy.

24:53. And they were always in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

THE HOLY GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist was the son of Zebedee and Salome, brother to James the Greater. He was called the Beloved disciple of Christ and stood by at his Crucifixion. He wrote the Gospel after the other Evangelists, about sixty-three years after our Lord’s Ascension. Many things that they had omitted were supplied by him. The original was written in Greek; and by the Greeks he is titled: The Divine. St. Jerome relates that, when he was earnestly requested by the brethren to write the Gospel, he answered he would do it, if by ordering a common fast, they would all put up their prayers together to the Almighty God; which being ended replenished with the clearest and fullest revelation coming from Heaven, he burst forth into that preface: IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD.

John Chapter 1

The divinity and incarnation of Christ. John bears witness of him. He begins to call his disciples.

1:1. In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God.